Sunday, September 20
Today we drove over to Boulder City (home of the Hoover Dam) to see the mythical Bighorn Sheep. Why mythical? Because we’d made the drive a couple of times and had yet to see them! Supposedly the sheep live in the nearby mountains and occasionally come down to Hemenway Park to graze, laze in the grass and have their pictures taken. This afternoon our perseverance was finally rewarded. As we approached the park we noticed that the parking lot was full and even before the ignition was turned off we saw some sheep wandering around in the field.
(Bighorn Sheep Enjoying the Grass)
At first we crept to a bench near the parking lot and observed a male who seemed very interested in several nearby females. Soon after I wandered down the hill and found two more large groups of sheep. After snapping a bunch of pictures I wandered back to where Deborah was and encouraged her to walk down the hill with me.
(Mugging for the Camera)
At the bottom of the hill was a large group of males and females laying down in the cool of some shaded grass. We watched for a while and then noticed that the bench right near one of the groups had been vacated. We jumped at the chance to see the animals up close and personal. We walked in a slow and circuitous route so as not to disturb the sheep. Our efforts were in vain. The ruminants were quite used to people and hardly took notice of our arrival. When we were finally seated we were no more than five feet from the closest animals. It was thrilling.
After a while a group of seven males gathered and started locking horns. When they rubbed against each other the ribbed surface of the horns made a distinctive sound. They all took turns feeling out one another and then things started to get animated. Just when it appeared that a full blown brawl would take place they all decided that they had had enough and decided to lay down in the grass. It was quite anti-climactic.
(Rumble in Boulder City)
After about 90 minutes we decided we’d seen enough and headed into Town to get some lunch. We’d passed a place called, “The Chicken Shack” on our way in and it looked just like the kind of place we like to explore. It was a small, non-chain eatery where a number of people were already enjoying meals.
We ordered the chicken strips, some fried wings and french fries. The food was great! The strips were large pieces of plump chicken with a slightly spicy breading. The wings were large and meaty and the shoe-string fries were crispy and tasty.
(Chicken Fingers for Lunch)
Since COVID hit our travel has been severely restricted and most days have been somewhat uninteresting. This was a good day.